Met Gala Glamour Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion

The Designers

The exhibition is an exploration of fashion’s evolution, blending historical garments with cutting-edge techniques and technological innovation. Showcasing 250 rare items from the Met’s permanent collection, garments on display span from 17th-century Elizabethan bodices to contemporary acquisitions by designers such as Phillip Lim and Stella McCartney. Every fashion legend of the 20th Century is on display, including Dior, Chanel, Schiaparelli, and Charles James, who was represented by his classic black Tulip and Siren dresses. Central to the exhibition is the “Sleeping Beauties,” which are historical garments that have been carefully preserved over the centuries and are shown laid flat in glass cases because they are too delicate to be hung on mannequins.

The Show

“Through an array of sensory experiences, including scented displays, video animation, light projection, soundscaping, and AI, visitors are immersed in the stories behind each garment. Max Hollein, The Met’s Director, said, “Sleeping Beauties will heighten our engagement with these masterpieces of fashion by evoking how they feel, move, sound, smell, and interact when being worn, ultimately offering a deeper appreciation of the integrity, beauty, and artistic brilliance of the works on display.” TikTok is the exhibition’s lead sponsor, with this is support from Loewe and Condé Nast. This blockbuster runs until September 2, 2024.

The Stars

Nicole Kidman, stunning in a black and white silk and feather confection by Balmain, the brand responsible for the night’s best looks, provided the major movie star energy at this year’s Met Gala. Top male charisma came courtesy of Chris Hemsworth, who, along with Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Bad Bunny, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour, co-chaired the benefit, dubbed “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The iconic gala, also known as “The Party of The Year,” has raised over $223 million under Wintour’s wings. This year’s tickets clocked in at $75k each, making it the most expensive and exhilarating night on the town.

Best Dressed

This year’s theme was inspired by J.G. Ballard’s story “The Garden of Time.” Stand-outs on the cream and green carpet included singer Tyla, who wore a Balmain dress made of sand with an hourglass serving as her purse. Brava! Zendaya first appeared as a woodland creature in a custom Maison Margiela by John Galliano peacock frock and then reappeared for round two in a floral headdress and black gown from Galliano’s tenure at Givenchy in 1966. The evening drew a dazzling crowd of A-listers from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez to Tom Ford, who paid homage to humanity’s enduring fascination with the natural world and its influence on fashion, while also spotlighting sustainability and ethical production practices.

The Party

For the food, caterer Olivier Cheng created dishes that evoke the whimsy of a children’s storybook. The first course featured a spring vegetable salad with elderflower foam, raspberry vinaigrette, and olive crumble resembling soil, topped with butterfly-shaped croutons. Cheng drew inspiration from Aurora’s reawakening after a century of sleep, choosing early spring vegetables as a symbol of new growth after a long winter. The main course was a filet of beef adorned with tortellini rose, intended to resemble a culinary castle. For dessert, guests enjoyed a not-so-poison apple, a playful nod to Snow White. This event’s invitations and décor also embodied the theme. Event producer Raúl Àvila complemented decorated the tables with nearly black, Treacy-inspired burgundy roses, English ivy, candelabras, and lettuce plates.

Conversation with Andrew Bolton

The Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute

“More than any other form of artistic expression, fashion undergoes the most radical transformation of status upon entering the Met’s collection. Fashion is a living form that requires most of our senses for its fullest appreciation and greatest understanding. Unlike painting, which requires a witness sense of sight for its enjoyment, fashion elicits the senses of touch, smell, hearing, and sometimes even taste except sight, which is actually enhanced and amplified in the context of museums.”

“The exhibit uses garments from our collection by reactivating their sensory capacities and re-engaging our sensorial perceptions. It’s the first project of a new initiative to expand the study of costume beyond the and cultural, towards the sensorial and emotional.”

“The show itself unfolds as a series of case studies united by the theme of nature. Fashion is inspired by nature in the natural environment and is well represented in the Costume Institute’s collection, ranging from flowers and foliage, birds and insects, and fish and shells. These items constitute the three sections of the exhibition. Earth, air, and water. Nature like fashion depends on the widest sensory engagements versus maximum experiential impact.”

“We’ve used AI to reawaken a wedding ensemble through a custom version of ChatGPT. You can have a conversation with the socialite who wore this gown, transforming two passive and silent objects into an active and valuable subject engaged in a dynamic exchange, and we ourselves are transformed from passive spectators into active participants.”

“In many ways, nature serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion. It’s rebirth, renewal, and simplicity, but also its transient ephemerality. These latter qualities are evident in the Sleeping Beauties. Several of the case studies garments are self-destructing due to inherent weaknesses and the inevitable passage of time. The extreme fragility of these garments precludes them from being dressed on mannequins. So, in the exhibition, they are displayed flat in the glass case to prevent any further deterioration.”

“While conservation friendly such a display denies the view of the truest expression of these costumes, which required the dimensionality of a body to realize their intended appearances. So rather than being reawaken, these garments needed to be resurrected, which we achieved virtually through holograms. Because the process was both complex and time consuming, we decided to resuscitate only one sleeping beauty. An 1880s silk gown by Charles Frederick Worth. The dress was simulated 40 times over a six-month period to achieve the correct silhouette and materiality for the hologram.”

“Sleep is an essential solve for the garment’s wellbeing, and survival. But, as in life, it requires a suspension of senses that equivocates between life and death. The exhibition is a reminder that museum garments, despite being tested for an eternal slumber, do not forget their sensorial issues. Instead, these histories are embedded within the very fibers of their being and simply require reactivation through the mind and body and heart and soul of those willing to dream and imagine.”

metmuseum.org